


You're My Mystery

by WhoIsWren



Category: Herr der Diebe | The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke, Thief Lord (2006)
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Meetings, Flirting, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 00:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14343861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoIsWren/pseuds/WhoIsWren
Summary: Their first night in Venice Prosper meets a tantalizing masked man. His mother always told him of the magic of Venice, he just never expected it to come in the form of a teenaged thief.





	You're My Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, it's super hard to tag for this movie/book. It sucks that there aren't many fics about Thief Lord, it is so good and Scipio and Prosper have amazing chemistry!   
> Title: Strings and Drums = Kisschasy

How can life be both perfect and disastrous at the same time? How can he simultaneously have everything he ever needed and own nothing at all?

They were cold and alone, not to mention hungry and scared. Rats surrounded them and the police were searching for them. In a new country far away from all they’ve ever known they sat on a wooden box in a stinking alleyway. With no money to their names, no shelter, no food, no water, and no friends, they wouldn’t last long on the streets of Venice.

And yet, they smiled.

Prosper looked down the young boy snuggled against his side. He has Bo and they made it to Venice, what more could possibly need? Everything felt right as long as they had each other and now that Prosper had him he was never letting Bo go ever again.

But Bo was sick and being out in the cold with no food was only going to make him sicker. Prosper was on the verge of panic, unsure how to help his little brother.

Then their little alleyway was invaded by a mask wearing sleuth. Instantly on guard Prosper pushed Bo behind him and stared down the intruder.

He swallowed hard and tried to stop his heart racing. It wasn’t fear that had his pulse jumping.

This boy, as he couldn’t be much older than Prosper himself, gave off an air of confidence that Prosper found compelling. The masked voice was as smooth as honey, his words carefully composed into a sweet melody designed to lure.

Prosper was hooked.

Hormones were a thing Prosper has been struggling with lately and sometimes he just couldn’t control the way his body reacted to certain things, or certain people. He was well aware that he found the guys in the locker room just as appealing as the girls smiling prettily at him. It may not have been something he advertised but no one back home had too much of a problem with it. He didn’t know what the rules were in Venice though. Would he be ridiculed? Would he be accepted? He just didn’t know, and that was why he kept quiet and tried to be subtle.

But this boy made subtlety difficult.

It was the way he spoke, the way he walked, and the way his eyes roamed over Prosper just as much as Prosper’s eyes raked over the masked boy’s body. Prosper wasn’t stupid, he knew what it looked like when someone was interested in you.

The masked figure gave off the vibe of being _very_ interested in Prosper.

None of that mattered though, not the looks or the cloying words, not when it came to Bo. The boy reached out to touch Bo and instinctively Prosper smacked the hand away. No one was allowed to touch Bo, never again. Prosper would do anything to protect Bo, even if that meant walking away from the first person he’s been remotely attracted to in months.

Hormones be dammed, nothing was more important than Bo.

Unfortunately Bo didn’t have the same hesitance as Prosper and when the masked boy offered them shelter the little boy leapt at the offer. Bo literally leapt off the wooden box and pulled Prosper along with him. Bo could be too trusting sometimes, especially when it came to other kids. Luckily his instincts were better when it came to adults.  

“We don’t even know your name,” Prosper called out after the masked boy, halting his and Bo’s momentum. It didn’t matter at that moment that the boy offered them help he wouldn’t take another step without at least knowing his name. He couldn’t keep calling him the _‘masked boy’_ in his head forever.

Their masked saviour paused and turned to look over his shoulder. He gazed at Prosper then, a looked filled with dark promise. Their eyes locked and Prosper had never felt so intensely about someone before, never felt this drawn to another human being. He felt so very in over his head, like he was falling down his own personal rabbit hole, but he didn’t even consider walking away.

“Call me Scipio,” the boy – _Scipio_ – replied, his blazing eyes boring into Prosper’s. “I think we’re going to _great_ friends, Prosper.”

Scipio winked at him before turning around and continuing his brisk walk through the twisting alleyways of Venice. Prosper was in a daze, blindly following the mysterious Scipio, hardly paying attention to where they were going.

When they reached the Stella and Scipio made a point to talk to Bo and make him feel welcome Prosper calmed considerably.  He’d never be able to associate with someone who didn’t get along with Bo.

Scipio removed his mask and Prosper forgot how to breathe for a moment. He was stunning and as flawless as a painting, like the ones his mother used to show him at the museum.

He was definitely in way over his head with this one.

That didn’t stop him from following Scipio into the Stella though.

**Author's Note:**

> For Camp NaNo I'm writing 20 short fics over several different fandoms, this is number 11.  
> [My Tumblr](http://www.nothing-personal-my-dear.tumblr.com)


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